Not What, But Who

[Revelation]

“Mani, go easy on me.”

Lucas Windsor sat on the edge of an examination table in the Melka Village Pokemon Center. His hunched over form was twisted slightly, with most of his weight being supported by his left arm. His right, on the other hand, was firmly gripping the fabric covering his knee, and it pulsated with every ripple of pain from his back.

“Please try and stay still, Lucas. I know this is painful, but we need to get this cleaned and bandaged fully.” The voice came from the man standing behind Luke. He pushed his glasses back up firmly into the bridge of his nose and stood on his toes to reach the shoulder wound he was cleaning. It was the gash from Luke’s wild run-in with a Spearow. Javier had helped to bandage it well, but the medical team in the center had taken one look and decided it needed stitches. That led to where Luke was now, biting his tongue as the icy burn of rubbing alcohol seeped through his flesh.

“I know, I know, it just isn’t fun.”

“Fun? If you don’t think this is fun, you’ve got a hard road ahead of you. I treat a couple injuries like this a week from trainers, and we certainly aren’t some big fancy city like Union. Just part of the job for you trainers.” He splashed a bit more alcohol on the wound at the end for emphasis, holding back a smile at the wincing he saw.

“There we go. That should be cleaned. Now lay down on your stomach. I’ve got to numb you and get this stitched up.”

Luke pursed his lips a bit, but he began shuffling around to lay down. Mani, meanwhile, wheeled out a tray containing all he would need to finish the job. Luke’s eyes glanced briefly at the sharp objects waiting to pierce him and quickened his descent to lying prone. Once on his stomach, he screwed his eyes shut. “Just do it quickly, please.”

Mani put a hand on Luke’s good shoulder, the weathered skin of the doctor wrinkling slightly as he pushed down. “Relax, Luke. You’re too tense. I need you to let your shoulders down so I can work.”

Luke took a deep breath, holding in for an uncomfortably long few seconds, and slowly began breathing out, forcing his shoulders to fall to the table.

“Good. Not a fan of needles?”

“Or numbing.”

“Well, let’s see if you can manage for a while. Don’t worry, I’m very well practiced in this.” He picked up the numbing agent and began lightly touching around the wound to find where to start. “I’ll even do a countdown for you, okay? I’m going to prick you on the count of three…”
He hadn’t even completely finished the word ‘three’ before Luke felt a slight pinch in his back and a cold sensation began creeping out across his back.

“Dang, Mani. I expected you to lie, but not so quickly.”

“I told you I’m well practiced.”

Arceus help me.


_{(Word Count: 508)}

[Revelation]

It didn’t take long to finish the treatment. Mani led him out of the room, rattling off what he needed to do to prevent ripping the stitches. Luke nodded along as he walked, keeping one ear on the doctor while the rest of him drifted off. Sunlight drifted in from windows high above, the angle of the dazzling beams suggesting the sun had not quite yet reached its daily peak. Good, that meant he still had most of the day to take care of things.

“... and if you do somehow get those stitches wet, gently pat them dry immediately. If you need any help with them, just ask a staff member and you will be assisted. Any questions?”

“Huh? Oh, ah, no, sorry. I’ll be careful with them, I promise. I’d rather not have to repeat the process again if possible.” Luke offered a small smile, and Mani seemed satisfied.

“Good. With that, I am off to the next patient. Take care!” He turned and began walking away, his dress shoes clicking against the linoleum floor. Luke watched him walk around a corner before heading back up towards the front of the center.

The center, while well taken care of, was much smaller than he was used to. The waiting room up front just had a couple of tables with chairs surrounding them and a long bar taking up one wall. Across from this was a set of small cubicles holding computers and other publicly accessible devices for use. The only other thing here was the help desk, where a woman with shoulder-length hair dyed green was watching a program on the TV mounted above. She gave a brief but polite nod in Luke’s direction as he entered before returning her attention to the program. He returned it out of habit, then went into one of the cubicles.

It was a pretty small area, just a single chair and a desk holding the computer, but it would do. Linking up his Holocaster to the machine, he quickly had a call going through to a familiar face.

Green eyes appeared in the hologram first, before the rest of the face appeared. “Luke! Good to hear from you. I’m guessing you’re in Melka now? How’d it all go?”

“Hey Alex. Yeah, I’m in the center right now actually. And it’s been fine. They forced me to get stitches though.”

“Pfft. Stitches. Everyone who works out in the field gets them at some point or another. I’m just impressed you managed to need them so quickly.”

“Oh yeah? And what about you? When did you first need them?”

"... That’s neither here nor there. Let’s just celebrate you surviving getting to another town in one piece. How are your pokemon?”

“Well… I don’t really know yet. They took them back to check on their symptoms, and haven’t heard back yet. Figured I’d call you first and then try to get some answers.”

“Hm. Well, that’s fine. Just shoot me a message later to let me know about them, okay?”

“Of course. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’ll still let you know.”

While he smiled and did his best to appear relaxed, Luke’s mind whirled in a flurry at the mention of his team. After splitting from Javier and continuing north, their health had quickly deteriorated. The Trapinch’s sneezing had become very frequent and even a bit violent. Makani, who had spent a decent amount of time with the new member in her shadow, had started showing symptoms as well. Her usually energetic personality had turned sluggish, and even flying didn’t seem to interest her during this. Finally, Alina had captured whatever was going on with the team, even with Luke doing his best to keep everyone separate. She still was in the early stages as of this morning, but with how the others went, it could get a bit ugly. And Luke was still too new to all of this to know what was going on. He’d hid the severity of it from Alex, not wanting to scare the man about his former pokemon. He felt confident that the staff would be able to sort it all out… or, at least, he kept telling himself that.

“Well alright… Oh, pardon me just a moment.” A brief figure appeared just on the edges of the display, and Alex turned to discuss something with them. After exchanging a few words, Alex turned back to the camera. “Sorry about that. In the middle of guiding a couple of the assistants, you see.”

“Oh, do you need me to go?” This might be a good time to just get out of this call before Alex started prodding about anything more.

“No, no. I can talk a bit longer. We still need to get you set up with your work in Melka, after all. I didn’t send you up there just for the weather! But… the stitches might complicate some things. I’ll need to talk to Dr. Powell about this, the professor who you’re going to be working with. I wanted you to get some field work experience with her, but we might need to adjust that a bit…”

“Shit, I was worried about that. Look, I should be okay to work as long as I’m cautious. The doctor here seemed mostly concerned with me keeping it clean and dry, so as long as I’m running any marathons or diving into a mud pit, I should be fine to go, right?”

“That’s not entirely up to me to decide. Dr. Powell, in exchange for teaching you the ropes, was going to use you as an extra assistant for a few days while they got things finished up there. And some of the things she does can be physically demanding. But she’s crafty, and knowing her, she’s figured out ways around bigger obstacles than this one. I’ll schedule a call with her later today hopefully and have you set up to start soon.”

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Do you need anything from me right now?”

“Nope. I need to get back to helping these guys in here, so you just rest this afternoon. Don’t forget to let me know what they find out, though, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I have you on speed dial. And do the same for me, okay?”

“Got it.”

Alex’s hand moved slightly offscreen, and then the hologram shut off. Luke sank down in his chair as the call ended, his fingers drumming out some unknown tune into the armrests.

Alright, time to check on the team.


_{(Word count: 1095)}

[Revelation]

The green-haired woman was still watching her show when Luke approached the front desk. She slowly spun around to face him, still reclining in her chair. The nametag she wore said her name was Paige. “Welcome. What do ya need?”

“Hey, Paige. I’m Lucas Windsor, and my pokemon were checked in earlier to be inspected for some sort of disease, and I wanted to get an update on that.”

“Sure thing.” She scooted forward in her chair, the piece of furniture creaking as she did so. She began hammering his name into the computer and flicked through some files. “Windsor, you said?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, let’s see. Checked in at a bit after eight, had concerns about their health, yada yada yada… Okay, here we go. Looks like they got Pokerus. Not terribly uncommon. Doc says that it’s not too bad, especially since you got them in here, so they’ll end up just fine. We need to keep them for a few days, though. Doc can tell you the rest later.”

A few days? That didn’t sound as good as she was making it out to be. Luke made a mental note to look into Pokerus later that day. “I see. Okay, well, any idea when I can see them?”

“No idea. Day after tomorrow? This is just the preliminary data. They’re finishing up a few other tests. Why, got someplace to be?”

“Maybe. It’s fine though. Um, is there a place for me to stay while I wait then?”

“Oh, no one showed you to the dorms?” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder, down the opposite hallway he had taken to get to the examination room. “Go down there, turn left at the second hallway, and take any room you want. We don’t have any visitors right now, so they should all be clear. Go to the end of that hall and your bathrooms will be on your right and the kitchen on your left. Snacks on the table are free, everything in the machines can be bought with card. I’m on shift for another six hours, so just call if you need anything.”

Luke grabbed his bag off the ground and nodded at her. “Thanks, Paige. Will do.”

She nodded back and turned her attention to the TV once more. Luke got a bit of a feeling that this was the norm around here. He took his packs and followed her instructions. The hallway he ended up in had three rooms on each side, all marked with a small ‘unoccupied’ sign to the right of the handle. Luke took the back left, closest to the kitchen. Inside was a pretty small room meant for two, with a couple of lofted beds with desks built underneath them. Small cubbies at the front of the room served as dressers for whoever should stay here. All in all, it would be cramped but serviceable when full, and was just fine for one man himself.

Luke tossed his back onto one desk and sat down at the other. He pulled out his Holocaster and quickly typed out a message for Alex.

Hey Alex,
They’re still running tests but they told me it's Pokerus. Said they should be fine but need kept a couple days. That a problem?

It was brief, but it’d do. He sent it, and then switched over to the browser to look into this disease. A quick search got him to a site breaking down the basics of it. Basically, it was just a disease not entirely dissimilar to the flu. If not treated right, it could get ugly, but usually it just took pokemon out of commission for a week. Once recovered, pokemon usually became immune to it, and their immune system was bolstered in ways some found beneficial, although that last part seemed pretty controversial, considering the amount of arguing happening within message boards.

Luke browsed a few more pages, trying to find more on the subject, but most of the information stayed the same. And really, he had what he needed. They were in care, so they should be safe. That was enough for him.

A small ding caught his attention, and the Holocaster vibrated slightly as a new message came in.

Pokerus? You really wanted your first trip to be memorable huh? That’s all good, you shouldn’t need them for now. Thanks for updating me. Let me know if things change.

Luke’s shoulders relaxed as he read through the response. Alex took the news pretty well, which helps. So now he just had to find something to pass the time with.

As if on cue, a ding and vibration signalled another message.

BTW, rest up tonight. You start tomorrow. Dr. Powell wants to meet at 8. I’ll send more info later.

Luke scratched his chin as he read this new message. He was a bit surprised that he was starting so soon, but business might be good for him right now. At least it’d get his mind of the pokemon while he waited for results or something like that.

He stood up from the desk and walked out into the hallway. He took a sharp turn to get into the kitchen, hoping to grab some food that wasn’t a protein bar.

What had been called a kitchen felt more like an office break room. It had a small fridge in the corner, a sink for washing dishes, and a microwave on a counter. A table sat in the middle of the room, and on it was a small pile of fruits and other wrapped snacks. Along one wall sat a few vending machines serving everything from candy bars to small microwaveable meals. Luke gravitated towards this, and after a few minutes of fiddling around with things, had a bowl of ramen in front of him. He sucked it down while thinking about the potential work he had to do tomorrow. His Holocaster sat on the table silently, no new messages waiting for him yet.

Well, if he was going to wait, he was going to at least get a little bit of sleep during it. He tossed his remnants in the trash and returned to his room. He crawled into one of the lofts, being careful to not go too quickly so the stitches didn’t pull, and sank into a real bed for the first time in days. The feeling of something to sleep in other than his sleeping bag revealed just how many aches and pains he really had throughout his body. He was a bit surprised that just a simple trip had done so much to him. He’d only been out for a few days. How long would it take for him to get used to this? Or was Tribule the exception instead of the rule?

Thoughts like these lingered in his head as Luke slowly closed his eyes and faded away into a restful sleep.


_{(Word count: 1153)}

[Revelation]

The sun was slowly rising the next morning, shining brightly onto the right side of Luke’s face as he walked the northern path out of Melka. Luke’s nap had lasted several hours, taking up most of the afternoon. He’d awoken to a few emails from Alex with information on this job. He was going to be met by one of the assistants on this path, and they would lead him to where the team was camping out. Originally he was supposed to camp with the rest of them, but that had changed with his shoulder injury. He’d make the journey back and forth each day, and he would stay pretty close to the town as a result.

As for the work itself, the team was out collecting various samples throughout the northern slopes of Melka to try and find if there were any chemical properties that might explain why Tiakhom Guard had such a concentration of high-aura creatures. More advanced researchers were actually getting closer to the territory, while younger ones or those without pokemon for protection stayed closer to the village for this. In Luke’s case, this is where he would be, and he would be helping/shadowing someone to learn from them while avoiding anything that might be terribly extraneous.

The trail curved slightly westward, taking the sun out of Luke’s right eye and blasting the back of his neck instead. He appreciated being able to see a bit better. While he’d dressed in layers to prepare for the frosty chill, he had not planned ahead for the intensity of the sun’s beams. He made a mental note to grab some sunglasses or at least a hat before coming back tomorrow.

After walking and winding for a few more minutes, Luke finally noticed a silhouette in the distance. As he got closer, the figure began to take shape. It was a woman about the same age as Luke leaning against a small ridge. She was dressed in a flannel and jeans, with a black jacket wrapped around her waist. Mud was speckled all across her, hinting at the work she’d been busy with leading up to this. As he got closer, he noticed her head was bobbing, causing her wavy auburn hair to swing haphazardly. Upon a closer look, she had her eyes closed and was entirely engrossed into whatever music was playing in her earbuds.

“Hey, I’m Luke. I think I’m supposed to meet you here?”

No response. She kept bobbing her head to the unheard rhythm, mouthing the lyrics to the song.

“Hey! I’m Luke!”

The raised voice seemed to help. Her eyes opened, quickly noticing the man waving an arm halfheartedly in front of her. She yanked her earbuds out, cursing under her breath as she did so.

“Well shit! I didn’t think you’d actually show up. A lot of people seem to think twice on their first day. You’re Luke?”

“Well, surprise I guess. Yep, I’m Luke. And you are?”

“Call me Kenzie.” She stuck out her fist for a bump, which Luke returned before thinking about it. This was a bit of a weird introduction.

“Alright Luke, follow me. Try to keep up so we actually make it back in time, okay? Most of the work’s already started, so we’ll need to catch up. C’mon!” Kenzie slung the shredded remains of a bag over her shoulder and began hiking nearly perpendicular to the main trail. Luke pulled the straps of his own bag and began jogging after her, trying to follow her haphazard path over the terrain.

“So, Kenzie, what all are we doing today?” Luke’s breath was already getting a little ragged from trying to keep up, but he did his best to keep his voice steady. Was he really this out of shape? At least Natrio had been relatively flat for most of the trip. This was like the dreaded stair climber at the gym. He lengthened his stride to try and make up more ground with less steps, but his masterful plan didn’t seem to work quite as well as he hoped.

“Hell if I know. Probably some more damn water samples. Arceus, I hate digging for those springs. That’d be your job if you didn’t have a shit shoulder.” Kenzie jumped over a boulder, that miserable excuse for a bag swinging wildly behind her. How it was holding together at this point was nothing short of a miracle, but she didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. She gave Luke a brief glance, the sunlight reflecting off her glasses and right into his face, before hiking onwards. He couldn’t be sure, but Luke would swear that she actually picked up her pace after that.

He hurried onward, doing his best to close the gap inch by inch. “Well in that case, how many have you taken so far?”

“We’ve only been out here for about two days. We originally started at the Marook Caves, but that went quicker than expected, so here we are pulling double-duty.” She snorted at that. “Leave it to Doc to squeeze every last dian out of a trip. I don’t know anyone who can make money or manpower stretch quite as far as her.”

“Oh really? So how much longer will you be out here?”

“Eh, probably another two or three days? I think we’ll aim for returning over the weekend, try to get at least one day of rest before doing the lab part. And you can bet we’re all pissing ourselves over getting a chance to do that.” If that sarcasm was any thicker, it would have probably slapped Luke in the face.

“Gotcha. Well you’re really selling all this work well.”

“Like making it sound peachy is my job?” She finally paused for a second to chuckle a bit at his idiocy. “Work is work, man. Just accept that.”

That pause was all Luke needed. With a few final leaps to close the distance, he was standing next to her. His breath came out in a staggered mess as he tried in vain to not sound winded. “Oh don’t you worry, I’m just fine doing whatever I need to.”

“Oh shut it.”

He peered around the area they stood in, noticing that there was a sliver of something dark blue peeking out from behind a turn. “Hey, is that the camp?”

“Yeah, it is. We should get there now.”

“Agreed. Well, try not to fall too far behind.” Luke turned and started a brisk pace towards the camp, speeding up as he heard a familiar foul mouth slowly getting louder.


_{(Word count: 1097)}

[Revelation]

Kenzie led the way through camp while Luke limped along behind, his left calf probably sporting a brand new foot-sized bruise courtesy of his escort. Overall, it was a pretty small camp. There were about three main larger tents set up with a small handful of personal ones scattered at the outskirts. Tables and coolers were scattered around the dark blue tent that Luke had spied earlier, and from how Kenzie was leading him, he guessed this was their destination.

She pulled back the fabric door and waved at Luke to follow. Inside were a couple of folding tables holding some basic field testing equipment. He recognized some of it for testing basic things like pH, suspended solids, and metals, among others. All the sort of things that might be a bit time-sensitive in testing. And standing in between these devices, furiously typing away at a laptop, stood what Luke could only assume to be Dr. Powell.

She barely glanced up as the two got closer. “Let me finish inputting these parameters. Then we will talk. Kenzie, go ahead and grab what you need.” The younger woman shrugged at Luke and stepped back outside the tent, scratching and banging following lightly. Yet still the professor typed on, leaving Luke to awkwardly stand there. He began looking over some of the devices in the tent, wondering how they got all the equipment up into this area, when a soft thump signalled that the laptop had finally been closed.

“Good, that's finished. Lucas I presume? Hi, I’m Dr. Kendis Powell. It is nice to have you here” She walked up to him and offered a handshake. Now that she was standing up straight, Luke could see that she was quite tall, only a couple of inches shorter than him. Her reddish-brown skin was covered with freckles, and the roughness of her calloused hands surprised him as they shook. She appeared to be a blue-collar worker in all senses of the word.

“Hey there, Dr. Powell. And please, call me Luke. So what do you want me to do? Alex has handed me off to you for now, so I’ll do whatever is needed.”

“Yes, I know. And you’ll be getting plenty of work done, especially with Mackenzie cracking the whip over you. Has she chewed you out yet?”

“Not too much, although it’s kind of hard to tell considering…”

“Considering how much she swears? Everyone says that about her. She’s a great worker, and she can be kind, but that mouth of hers beats down everyone in her path. Believe it or not, we’ve made progress with her over the past few months.” A sly grin flashed across her face. “But you’ll get to learn all about that over the next few days, I’m sure. Now, turn around. Show me this injury of yours.”

The request was a tad bit confusing, but Luke obliged, pulling up his shirt so she could see the stitches. “Wow, Luke. That spearow got a pretty clean hit on you I see. And you have no pokemon on you, did Alex inform me correctly? Well, that is unfortunate, but you can still take samples. I’ll leave it up to Kenzie to take care of any obstacles you run into.”

Luke pulled his shirt back down and turned back to the professor. “Sounds good. And my pokemon should be better before me, so at least I can offer that.”

“Oh good! That might be nice. But for now, we play with the hand we are dealt. Come look at this map.” She pulled Luke over to a corner of a table where a topographic map of the area was laid out. A grid had been roughly drawn across the top of it, with each box being labelled based on location. “Okay, let’s see what would be safe for you here… I don’t think B23 has been checked yet for water samples. Tell Mackenzie to take you there.” She pointed at the box, which appeared to be to the southwest of the camp and was not too far from the outskirts of town. The curling lines in the box hinted at a small ravine running through the area, but otherwise it appeared pretty flat. “This should be easy enough to get to, and you’ll be safe there. Critters don’t really get any closer than line 21, and you can run to town in case of an emergency. I need to run up closer to Tiakhom itself and check on some reports of aggressive pokemon there, but once I get that cleared I will come find you and see what is going on. Hopefully she will have you sorted out and working well before I get there. Do you have any questions before I send you off now?”

“Uh, no Dr. I think I should be fine. I studied geology before joining the TIS, so hopefully some of what I learned there will transfer.”

“Yes, Alex did mention that. SangCity, right? That’s… nice. I’m sure you’ll get at least some use out of it.” Dr. Powell tried to be nice, but her face tightened up a bit at a mention of the university.

Luke brushed off the backhanded compliment. “Yes, well, I’ll go find Kenzie then and get going. Don’t want to waste any more time, right?”

“Yes, indeed. That’s a good mindset to have. I will see you later.” She dismissed Luke with a wave of her hand and began grabbing some supplies from around the tent, ignoring the departure of her temporary assistant. Outside, Kenzie was sorting through empty bottles in a cooler. She looked up as Luke approached.

“Welcome back. Did Doc tell you where we are going?”

“Yeah, she said B23. Does that make sense to… nevermind.” Luke cut himself off as Kenzie whipped out her own map. She rolled her eyes at him.

“Of course. So she’s having us play safe today. I’m not surprised.” She put the map away and closed the cooler. She turned to Luke and shoved it into his hands. “Here, you get to carry this. I’ve got the toolbag.” She picked up a canvas bag with reinforced handles and shifted it around until she was satisfied. “Alright, this is about a 10 minute walk.” She turned and looked back at Luke. “Are you ready to go?”

The cooler itself was light enough, at least for now. That was certainly going to change once they actually got what they needed, but he wasn’t going to complain. “Yep. Lead the way.”

She nodded, and the two of them walked out of camp.


_{(Word count: 1100)}